“Over 360 Unaccompanied Minor Asylum Seekers Disappear from Shelters in the Netherlands”

Since January last year, 360 unaccompanied minor asylum seekers have disappeared from refugee shelters in the Netherlands. This is evidenced by data released by the national Asylum Agency COA on Friday.

Around 4,500 unaccompanied children applied for asylum in the Netherlands last year, according to the COA. Most of the children have disappeared from the largest reception facility in the Netherlands, the registration center in Ter-Apel.

The agency reported the disappearances to an expert center for combating human trafficking and smuggling. Algemeen Dagblad reported that locals found that “black girls and boys are regularly picked up by older men in their cars near refugee shelters.”

Last April, the Dutch Ombudsman for Children Margrit Culverboer drew attention to the mental and physical neglect of children in the Ter-Apel center, which violates international conventions on the status of refugees. The United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF has also raised concerns about the safety of children.

Germany Bolhaar, the national rapporteur on human trafficking and child sexual abuse reported in 2020 that 97% of Vietnamese children placed in sheltered shelters in the Netherlands have fallen into the hands of traffickers. According to the report, 75% of the missing minor asylum seekers are mostly teenagers of Moroccan origin between the ages of 15 and 17.